Project Description

Ephraim Asili

Portrait of Ephraim Asili

Radcliffe-FSC Fellow 2023-24

Ephraim Asili is an African American multidisciplinary artist and educator whose practice centers the African diaspora as a cultural force. Often inspired by his quotidian wanderings, Asili creates art that situates itself as a series of meditations on the everyday. He received his B.A. in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and his M.F.A in Film & Interdisciplinary Art at Bard College. Asili’s art has been exhibited in festivals and venues all over the world, including the New York Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, The Berlinale, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Asili’s 2020 feature debut The Inheritance premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was later acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2021 Asili was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. In 2022 Asili was commissioned by Louis Vuitton to direct two projects, a short film, Strange Math, and the live stream broadcast of their 2023 Men’s Spring/Summer fashion show. Ephraim Asili currently serves as the Director of the Film & Electronic Arts at Bard College where he is also an Associate Professor.

FSC Works

Film Still from Don & Moki: Organic Music SocietyFilm Still from Don & Moki: Organic Music Society

Don & Moki: Organic Music Society

Ephraim Asili

During his 2023/2024 Radcliffe fellowship, Asili will work toward the completion of his second feature length 16mm film Don & Moki: Organic Music Society is a documentary/essay hybrid exploring the life and times of multi-instrumental musician, theorist, and educator Don Cherry, along with his primary collaborator and wife, visual artist, Moki Cherry.